Proposed federal rules aimed at cleaning up the air in Acadia and other national parks are welcome, environmentalists and the Maine congressional delegation said Tuesday. But, they added, the new rules would do less to clear the state’s air than continued federal support for lawsuits against older power plants that emit the pollution.

Representatives of several Maine groups testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday in support of changes to a federal haze rule that would give the states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency more authority to go after power plants and other polluters that emit dirty air that is blown into national parks.

The changes, which wouldn’t go into effect for nearly a decade, would increase visibility at Acadia, Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge and Roosevelt Campobello International Park.

Just this summer, the amount of ground level ozone in Acadia National Park has exceeded state and federal safety standards nine times. As a result, ozone advisories have been issued three times, meaning park visitors are warned to avoid strenuous activities and scenic views are obscured.

Is this what visitors come to Acadia to experience, wondered Stephanie Clement, conservation director for Friends of Acadia, an advocacy group.

The testimony of Clement and others came a day after members of the state’s congressional delegation expressed concern that the Bush administration was considering backing out of a lawsuit that seeks to compel older power plants in the South and Midwest to comply with the Clean Air Act. Many plants have been exempted from the act under the theory that they would no longer be in operation today, more than 30 years after the Clean Air Act was enacted.

The U.S. Department of Justice, under President Clinton, joined several states in suing dozens of older power plants, alleging they modernized without making the required upgrades to reduce pollution. Maine did not join the lawsuit, but New Jersey, then under Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, did. Whitman is now head of the EPA and reportedly prefers that her agency stays involved in the legal action.

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham reportedly favors withdrawing from the cases.

A spokesman for Sen. Olympia Snowe said that while the new national park rule will be beneficial, continued federal involvement in the clean air cases would ensure cleaner air across the Northeast, not just in parks.

“It is very important that as we clean up the air for our national parks … we clean up the air along the way,” Dave Lackey said Tuesday.

Seventy percent of the pollution in Maine comes from out of state, so reducing pollution from sources to the west and south will definitely help Maine, he said.

Ensuring that old power plants clean up will mean cleaner air for our parks, plus other benefits, such as reducing mercury in our lakes, Lackey said.

“We do not expect to be abandoned by the federal agency whose very mission is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment, including the air we breathe,” Sen. Snowe wrote in letters to Whitman and Abraham on Monday.

Concerns about Maine’s air quality were heightened last week when the Centers for Disease Control reported that the state has the highest rate of asthma in the country. One in 11 people in Maine suffer from the chronic ailment that is worsened by polluted air.

“It has long been suspected that because Maine sits at the end of the jet stream in the United States, contaminants released across the nation – particularly industrial pollution from smokestacks in the Midwest – impact the citizens of the Northeast and Maine most of all,” Congressman John Baldacci wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Whitman last week.

Mainers who spoke to Congress in favor of the national park haze rules Tuesday also called for continued federal involvement in the lawsuits.

“The lawsuit is absolutely necessary to hold the power plants to the same rules we must adhere to,” said Sue Jones, the air project coordinator for the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

At the same time, she said the national park rule was more far-reaching than the court action because it applies to a broad range of polluters, not just power plants.

Under the proposal now being considered by the EPA, companies would have to use the best available technology to upgrade their pollution control measures to reduce emissions of compounds that cause haze, thereby reducing visibility, in 156 national parks, wilderness areas and national wildlife refuges. The rule would apply to facilities built between 1962 and 1977.

The new rules likely won’t take effect until at least 2007 and facilities won’t have to comply with its provisions until 2015.